2017 CWB Wooden Boat Show

Very cool. Notice that the left side of the cockpit is cut out to allow the driver to lean out on left turns - the only kind these boats make in competition. Note the small Japanese made motor. It makes 35 hp and the boat is good for about 70 mph.

More small outboard hydros.

What the little outboard hydros aspire to become when they grow up.

Note the big V-12 Rolls Royce Merlin engine. This boat was very much of interest to me as a kid. It belonged to Bill Boeing Jr. and the story I have read is him taking a Boeing test pilot named Miro Slovak to see it. Slovak commented that he had done some boat racing in Czechoslovakia - not mentioning that was paddle boats. He turned out to be an excellent unlimited hydroplane driver!

Lake Union Dreamboat!

Wouldn't this be great to go cruising in?

These were built a short walk from where I stood.

Lightning class sailboat.

I spent a lot of time sailing in one of these as a kid. Lots of fun.

Time on Lake Union is very incomplete without some seaplanes going by. As this one passed the dock I was standing on, the young boy and his dad at the end of the dock waved and the pilots and every passenger waved back!

Gulf Coast Oyster Schooner "Lavengro"

I had never seen one of these up close and personal before. Lovely boat.

The elegant bow of the Lavengro.

The CWB Tugboat "Pete Culler"

The Big Ones

The Virginia V, the Arthur Foss, and the lightship Relief.

The most elegant Virginia V

So sorry I missed getting a shot with steam from the whistle.

This is what Vancouver and Puget used to explore Puget Sound

They would row (and sail a little) from dawn to dusk, taking soundings and sightings, getting data to make early charts that were surprisingly accurate. Brutal work.

A Peapod. A lot of oyster pots were set and pulled from boats like these.

An elegant motorboat

The kind of thing you might ride in if you were in Venice.

Another shot of the elegant runabout.

The CWB Bristol Bay boat

CWB's signature boat. When I was active on the board in the early days we always hoped to have one and so it came to pass. A lot of salmon were caught in Bristol Bay, Alaska from boats like these, no motors, just sail and oars.

A Video of a sailby!

A lovely Chris-Craft from the wooden boat era of that brand.

The Chris Craft from astern.

The Winifred

This boat was always a favorite of my late wife Lauralee, because her mother's name was Winifred.

The Winifred is another Lake Union Dreamboat.

Designed by Chapelle, built by Blanchard, it's a classic from 1920.

I once saw this boat under sail near Point Defiance and it was like watching music move across the water.

The Red Jacket.

She was once sunk while on fire by rifle shots below the waterline, to save her from the fire.

And if I win the lottery...

I can think of nothing to enrich my life better than owning the Red Jacket.

The Red Jacket from the bow. 62 feet on deck, 72 feet overall.

The CWB boatshop

In the early days we dreamed of having our own site - and we achieved that - and then having a boatshop on that site.

This floating building was the first structure CWB had. Lon Isreal's Oakmead Foundation funded it for CWB, using money he had made as co-founder of Qume, an early computer printer company.

Lon was a great guy and I was privileged to have lunches and dinners with he and Dick Wagner while we were working out the details.